Melissa Van Diepen: Denham’s criticism of newspapers unfounded and unfair
On Wednesday, March 1, I attended Rep. Jeff Denham’s evening conference call. I was interested in hearing his thoughts on the Affordable Care Act, Donald Trump and water. I expected to hear those topics covered as well as the travel ban and other hot-button issues.
What I did not expect to hear from him was this: “You can’t always believe what is written in the paper.”
I am beyond disappointed that Rep. Denham is feeding into the idea the free press isn’t accurate or fair. There are many newspapers doing fine journalism, including his hometown papers, which by the way, he links to routinely from his website. Rather than make a blanket statement like that, I would have rather heard him specifically address his concerns.
In this extraordinary time; we are in need of thoughtful, articulate leadership. His comment was thoughtless and does nothing to demonstrate leadership but rather feeds the Trump administration’s propaganda machine.
Melissa Van Diepen, Modesto
This story was originally published March 6, 2017 at 2:47 PM with the headline "Melissa Van Diepen: Denham’s criticism of newspapers unfounded and unfair."